Beach Youth Look for Wins at Worlds

Becky Murdy
Assistant, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: becky.murdy@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 23, 2011) –The lone U.S. girls’ youth beach team tallied a 2-0 record through the first day of pool competition at the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Youth (Under 19) World Championships, while both the U.S. boys’ teams fell to Poland opponents at the event being held at the ATP Stadium in Ugam, Croatia.

Sara Hughes (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Justine Wong-Orantes (Cypress, Calif.), seeded second, defeated Poland’s 23rd-seeded team of Kedozior and Stasiak 13-21, 21-19, 15-7 in 38 minutes in a Pool B match. The Americans then faced Canada’s 14th-seeded team of Noca Jackleen Bozinoski and Sydney Krizmanich, beating the pair 21-10, 21-9 in 23 minutes for the quickest contest in either the girls’ and boys’ event.

"The level of comp is much higher here than at home," Hughes said. "The foreign teams have a different  way of playing and communicating. We had to work on playing our system and recognizing when to make adjustments."

Photo: Courtesy od FIVB U.S. Boys' Youth Beach Team of Skyler McCoy and Patrick Carr.  Hughes and Wong-Orantes will battle11th-seeds Paula Soria Gutierrez and Maria del Carmen Martinez Ferrer of Spain on Friday in their final match of pool play.

Both U.S. youth boys’ teams faced Poland opponents Thursday, unable to come out with a victory. Nick Porterfield (Los Angeles) and Bennett Bird (San Diego) fell to Poland’s third-seeded team of Maciej Kosiak and Lukasz Kaczmarek 21-16, 21-18 in 30 minutes in Pool I, while Patrick Carr (Sterling, Va.) and Skyler McCoy (Lakewood, Calif.) lost to Poland’s 21st-seeded team of Maciej Rudol and Pawel Pelka 21-16, 21-18 in 30 minutes in Pool J.

In the final day of pool play, Porterfield and Bird have a pair of matches starting with Australia’s 15th-seeded team of Samuel Halliday and Lincoln Williams followed by Switzerland’s 10th-seeded team of Lerch and Lerch on Friday.

McCoy and Carr lineup against sixth-seeds Theophile Carrau and Alexis Gras of France and Austria’s ninth-seeded team of Petutschnig and Winter on Friday.

A total of 73 teams-38 men and 35 women-from 29 countries were narrowed down to the top-24 in Photo: Courtesy of FIVB U.S. Boys' Youth Beach Team of Bennett Bird and Nick Porterfield. each gender on Wednesday, making up six four-team pools for Thursday and Friday’s round-robin play. The top two teams in each pool and the best four third-place teams will advance to the single-elimination bracket.

More information on the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Championships is available here, www.fivb.org.

Tags: 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Youth World Championships, Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB, FIVB beach, FIVB World Championship